The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-18

erence before the past, and would per-
petuate alike its folly and its wisdom,
its truth and its falsehood, there is
room enough for irrational conservatism,
which admits that God himself has es-
tablished testimony in Jacob and a
law in Israel, and which while it would
root out the tares would still be careful
and not pluck up the wheat also. Such
conservatism as this, 1 think, we
should all do well to embrace and prac-
tice. To aid you in so doing shall be
the object of the present discourse.
Let it be observed, then, that in relig-
ion there are certain fundamental
truths which belong to it as such-that
these truths run through the structure
of it, at all times and in all ages. God
himself has established them, and they
are to be respected in the present and in
the past and wherever they may be
found. By them we must abide, every
where and always, and not one of them
can be disregarded or ignored with i'm
punity. 1t is just as it is with science,
whose axioms are to be received as au-
thority. Suppose you wish to study
mathematics. Its fundamental laws
are few. Addition, subtraction, null
duplication and division. The sum of
two and three is equal to five. Take
two from five and three remain. -Four
times five is equal to twenty. Three is
contained in twelve four times. These
| are fundamental laws, and the student
must accept them and abide by them,
and he that ignores them or attempts to
| do without them will find to his cost,
that he is out at sea, without chart or
compass.
The philosopher cannot dispense with
the Principal Of Newton, nor with the
law of gravitation; nor the astronomer
with the systems of Copernicus and
Calico; nor the chemist with the
footprints of Sir Humphrey Davy !;
nor yet the physician with the rudi-
mental knowledge of Galen and Hypo-
crates. True, none of these men dis
covered all truth, but what Of truth
they did discover is eternal and is to be
respected and held fast, now and ever.
Blind conservatism, and indiscriminate
and ruthless radicalism, are alike detri-
mental to science. And yet it is true,
beyond all doubt, that every science
has its fixed and fundamental laws
which are alike authoritative in all ages,
and upon which the student must lay
no ruthless hand if he would hope for
success.
And so it is in religion. There are
first principles that underlie all others.
Taught they were by the Fathers; es-
tablished they were of old; and though
the temple of truth is not completed,
so far as our knowledge is concerned,
yet the man who would increase in the
knowledge of things divine, must abide
by these principles and admit them as
established, permanent and abiding.
The religious and moral world can no
more spare to-day the rudimental prin-
ciples of Moses and the Prophets, and
Jesus, than the scientific world can
spare the Principal Of Newton, or the
Copernican system of astronomy.
Let us look moment aud see if we
can spare Moses or Jesus. The doc
trines of Moses, SO far as radical truth
is concerned, are few. Amid the dark
night of polytheism and idolatry, when
the people of all nations worshiped
"gods many and lords many" Moses
stood up, solitary and alone, towering
above all his contemporaries and from
that awful mount in thunder tones
he announced the mighty truth: "There
is one God, and beside him there is no
God" The existence and the govern
ment of one only living and true God
was the burden of his mission. 1t was
thorough work that he had to per-
form. The question that he had to
meet was not, which of all the gods in
whom the nations believed was most
powerful or wise but it was, which
was God +; and he did not temporize or
do things by halves; but he laid the
axe at the root of the tree, pronounced
all their pretended gods to be nothing
secuted all their claims and said,
ever and always: "The Lord he is God,
and beside him there is none else"
Hence, he gives the reason for the won
ders that he wrought in these words {:
"That the people may know that the
Lord is God, and there is none other
but him."
Now, then, it would be gratifying to
see some of the wise men of the world
ignore this testimony that was estab-
lished in Israel by Moses, aid under
take to get up decent, respectable re-
ligion without it / No mushroom pro-
duction was that which, like Jonah's
gourd, came up in night and with
cred in a day; but it was a solid land
mark, a fixed and firmly established
truth which has withstood the shock
of ages, and which will stand so long as
man lives, or the universe endures-a